87 Vanagon Fog Lights

After driving in some heavy snow, I wanted to add some fog lights. The LED headlights I have on the Vanagon are great but Vanagon lights are so high they just light up the snow.  I purchased a set of LED fog lights from superbrightleds.com and fog light brackets from Van Cafe. The fog lights have two modes, backlight and main.  I used a second hand Porsche rear fog light switch to control the main fogs.

This is meant to be informative and not a how to. Your mileage may vary. All the information I needed came via various posts on TheSamba.

My Goal

  • Have the backlight mode turn on with the parking lights
  • Have the fog lights turn on with the Porsche switch
  • Have the fog lights turn off when the key is off – like the headlights

The Method

To start, I removed the lower grille and headlight grille as well as the inner most driver’s side headlight bracket. I have the Small Car South Tacoma headlight kit.  Using a screw driver, I made some room in the grommet that the speedo cable runs through, lubed up my three strand wire and pushed it through into the dash.

Pulling the wire through the grommet.

Pulling the wire through the grommet.

I then fished a coat hanger wire up from the lower grill to the wire and pulled it down to the fog lights.  I connected the three wires to the fog lights. One for backlight, one for main, and one for ground.

Coat hanger as fish to pull wire down.

Coat hanger as fish to pull wire down.

Wired up front.

Wired up front.

Next up, I disconnected my battery and dropped the fuse box. I wanted to access the connectors on the rear of the fuse box that support the running lights and the headlights. The diagram can be a bit confusing as it is “backwards” in my mind. The G connectors, the ones we want, are just above the screw mounting tab that holds the fusebox to the firewall.  I tested and retested to ensure I had my numbering orientation right.

Backward? Forwards? Confusing? To me... yes.

Backward? Forwards? Confusing? To me… yes.

Tight quarters.

Tight quarters.

The Backlights

These are easy. Having grounded my fog light harness to a spare connector on the crown, I ran the backlight wire to G9 and connected it with a female spade connector. Now the lights come on with the parking lights.

The Main Lights

These were a bit more work as I also wanted to put in a relay “just in case”. I know the Vanagon headlight switch is a bit famous for not being able to handle an extra load. Even though my LED headlights use much less power then the original lights, I still went with the relay.

Wired with quick connects to make it easier.

Wired with quick connects to make it easier.

The relay gets fused power from the battery a the on signal from the Porsche switch. The fog lights and a ground are connected to the relay as well as the power out to the fog lights.  The switch gets power from both the headlight grey blue wire and G7. Fusebox G7 power is only on when the key is on and supports the headlight circuit.

Porsche REAR fog light switch - EURO.

Porsche REAR fog light switch – EURO.

Switch wiring instructions.

Switch wiring instructions.

 

Generic simple accessory relay wiring.

Generic simple accessory relay wiring.

The Result

Once I got it all put back together… I now had the lights working as I wanted.

* after a quick test drive they seem to work well BUT I will be adding a spacer so I can aim them a bit better.

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